According to http://www.surfersvillage.com Bournemouth will be hosting 1st stage of a 3 stage Rip Curl Girls tour.
Organisers are hopeful the event which is scheduled to take place on 28th June will be held on the artificial reef.

Full story: http://www.surfersvillage.com is below.
Tass Swallow : photo Jason Feast

Rip Curl Girls Tour

Stop No 4 of 10 on 2009 UK PST
Bournemouth UK
28 June 2009

Rip Curl Sponsor the biggest Women’s Event on the 2009

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 8 June, 2009 : – - The Rip Curl Girls Tour will this year feature a series of Women’s surfing contests in England and Wales. Three of these events; Bournemouth, Croyde and St Ives will combine to make a two star event on the Women’s UK Pro Surf Tour, with £1,000 prize money available. The surfer who accumulates the most points over these three competitions will win the only two star women’s event on the UK Pro Surf tour

In addition to the Pro events each venue will host a Newbie event. If the girls have not competed in a surf contest before they will have the opportunity to compete for the first time against surfers with the same experience as themselves. The finalists of these events will be put in the draw against the top Pro Surfers in the UK along with winning prizes from Rip Curl and the other sponsors.
The first event will take place at Bournemouth 28th June, at the location of the UK’s first artificial reef. There will be many activities taking place throughout the day to entertain the competitors. World Champion Stephanie Gilmore of Australia will be in attendance giving advice and supporting the development of the sport for Women.

The second stop on the Rip Curl Girls Tour will be Llanglennith on the Gower Peninsula, 23rd July. This event will not be part of the Pro Tour Series, due to the expected number of Newbie entries for the first timer’s competition. For the last 3 years over 200 female surfers have taken the opportunity to attend this event.

Stop three is at Croyde Beach, North Devon. Widely recognised as one of the best beach breaks in the country. It will give the best surfers a good opportunity to show their skills in quality surf.

The final stop is Porthmeor Beach in St Ives, situated below the Tate Gallery; Porthmeor is possibly one of the most popular beaches in Cornwall. In addition to the First time and Pro Event there will be a Women’s Longboard Event, the only Women’s Longboard event on the UK Pro Surf Tour. At this event we will crown the winner of the Rip Curl Girls Tour and give away £1,000 prize money.

Bournemouth 28th June
Llanglennith Wales 23rd July
Croyde Devon 26th July
St Ives Cornwall 28th 29th July

In stormy conditions at the recent Bude Surf Classic (16th / 17th May) Miles was crowned under 14’s champion. He battled hard and managed to sneak the win by 0.2 points ahead of Jobe Harris.

To read the full story please visit:

http://www.globalsurfnews.com/news.asp?Id_news=40869

According to a story published today on http://bournemouthhotelnews.wordpress.com all of the necessary preparation works for the 2nd phase of the reef have now been completed.

The second layer of the surf reef can now be started when weather and sea conditions permit. According to the site we may be surfing the reef by this Autumn.

To view aerial shots of the reef please click here

What is going on with surfing round here?

I have been surfing the local spots with my friends for at least 15 years and throughout this time I have shown respect where needed and learnt my sport in the right way. Me & my mates have always known our place and come through the ranks and encouraged all the other locals to rip it up when it’s actually on.

So why is it now more than ever that the community spirit has gone and everyone is being forced to snake and drop in on each other to get a wave. I think it takes the mickey that people learning the sport are adopting this mentality and becoming selfish fX%kers in the water.

I am all up for people learning to surf and getting involved.  However at the moment it seems that people learning to surf in Bournemouth are now getting a warp sense of surfing and what its all about.

I think we would all agree that something has to be done about this otherwise the Bournemouth surf community is going to disappear into a mess.

I want Bournemouthsurf.com to voice the opinions of Bournemouth’s real surf community so if you feel strongly please add your ideas / thoughts below by placing a comment.